An injured Oriental Bay Phodilus badius in Goa, Jennifer De Souza & Qupeleio De Souza

De Souza, J. & De Souza, Q. 2010. An injured Oriental Phodilus badius in Goa, India. Indian 5 (5): 155. Jennifer De Souza & Qupeleio De Souza, Backwoods Camp, Matkan, Sanguem, Goa, India. Email: [email protected] Manuscript received on 24 April 2009.

he is a resident of semi-evergreen, and and scratching at the affected area with its foot. At about 0830 evergreen forests. Its strictly nocturnal habits, low density hrs the flew down onto the ground, clearly weakened, and of populations, and secretive nature contribute to its status the decision was taken to capture it to ascertain the extent of Tas one of India’s more little known (Ali & Ripley 1987). its injuries. Once in the hand, closer inspection showed a deep Within India it occurs in two widely separated geographic regions, circular would, approximately 1 cm in diameter, adjacent to the apparently rare in both although, perhaps, as this report might bill, infested with maggots, perhaps initially inflicted as a scratch indicate, to some extent overlooked. or bite from a prey item. The bird was taken directly to the Goa The northern race Phodilus badius saturatus is known to extend clinic of International Rescue for treatment, where sadly it throughout the Himalayan foothills from to south-eastern succumbed to its injuries during the night. The specimen is to be Arunachal Pradesh, and the southern Hills. Two disjunct donated to the collections of the Bombay Natural History Society populations, P. b. ripleyi and P .b. assimilis, occur in the southern following taxidermy. Western Ghats of Kerala/Tamil Nadu, and in the wet and The core areas of the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary intermediate zones of Sri Lanka, respectively (Inglis 1945; Ali & contain pristine, largely unexplored vegetation classified into Ripley 1987; Rasmussen & Anderton 2005). These two southern three main forest types, namely, west coast tropical evergreen, races are sometimes considered a distinct , Ceylon Bay Owl west coast semi-evergreen, and moist deciduous. That an Oriental P. assimilis, on the basis of morphological, and in particular, vocal Bay Owl was found in appropriate habitat as far north as Goa variations (Rasmussen & Anderton 2005). raises questions about its status, and wider distribution within Until the early 1990s P. b. ripleyi was known only from a the Western Ghats. This region forms part of over 2,200 km2 single specimen taken at Periasolai (10° 36’N 74°40’E) in Kerala’s of protected forests in Goa, and neighbouring Karnataka and Nelliampathy Hills (Hussain & Khan 1978), following which Maharashtra which, given the pervasion of suitable habitat, may almost all recorded sightings have been from the Anaimalai be hosting previously overlooked populations of Oriental Bay Hills (Kannan 1993, 1998; Sugathan & Jacob 1995; Muddappa Owl, extending its range considerably further north, than has 1998; Raman 2001). It has therefore long been considered that the been earlier supposed. distributional range of this species in peninsular India is across a very small section of the southern Western Ghats, although there Acknowledgements have been previous extralimital reports from Bandipur National Thanks to Dilip Kumbhar, and staff of Backwoods Camp for their assistance, Park (Ahmed & Yekanthappa 1998), and Sirsi (Vasudeva et al. and to Carl D’Silva for carrying out taxidermy. We are particularly grateful 2005), both in Karnataka state. to Nikhil Prabhugaonkar, and Aparajita Choudhury, veterinarians at the Here we present, what is almost certainly, the first record of Goa clinic of International Animal Rescue, for their efforts in examining, Oriental Bay Owl in Goa, and the northern-most record within and treating this bird. the Western Ghats. At around 0730 hrs on 8 April 2009 an owl was observed References roosting on a low branch in Backwoods Camp (15°26’N 74°14’E; Ahmed, A. & Yekanthappa, K. 1998. Birds of Bandipur National Park. Mysore: 95 m a.s.l.), within the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary Published by the Field Director, Project Tiger. (Goa). The bird was immediately identified as an Oriental Bay Ali, S. & Ripley, S.D. 1987. Compact handbook of birds of India and Pakistan Owl, this being a distinctive species, and one that we are familiar together with those of Bangladesh, , Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. 2nd ed. with. Excellent views were obtained at close range allowing us to Bombay: Oxford University Press. Hussain, S. A. & Khan, M. A. R. 1978. A new subspecies of Bay Owl [Phodilus view the bird from all aspects, noting the speckled chestnut and badius (Horsfield)] from peninsular India. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 74 golden back, heavily banded wings, and short tail, pale facial disc (2): 334–336. with dark vertical eye stripes, and clearly defined chestnut cap. Inglis, C.M. 1945. The Northern Bay Owl. J. Bengal Nat. Hist. Soc. 19: The bird was clearly unsettled, changing its perch occasionally 93–96. but never moving Kannan, R. 1993. Rediscovery of the Oriental Bay-Owl Phodilus badius in far. Disregarding its peninsular India. Forktail 8: 148–149. entirely unexpected Kannan, R. 1998. Avifauna of the Anaimalai Hills (Western Ghats) of a p p e a r a n c e h e re , southern India. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 95 (2): 193–214. this uncharacteristic Muddappa, D.C. 1998. Sight record of the Oriental Bay Owl (Phodilus badius a c t i v i t y d u r i n g ripleyi) in the Annamalai Hills, southern Western Ghats, India. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. daylight hours, in 95: 343. Raman, T. R. S. 2001. Observations on the Oriental Bay Owl Phodilus badius such close proximity to and range extension in the Western Ghats, India. Forktail 17: 110–111. human habitation, was Rasmussen, P. C. & Anderton, J. C. 2005. Birds of South Asia: the Ripley guide. a cause for concern. 2 vols. Washington DC & Barcelona: Smithsonian Institution & Lynx It soon became clear Edicions. that the bird was Sugathan, R. & Jacob, K. C. 1995. Further records of the Bay Owl from Kerala. suffering a facial injury, Newsletter for Birdwatchers 35 (4): 77–78. periodically shaking Vasudeva, R., Hareesh, T.S., Hombe Gowda, H.C., Bhat, S.D., Gunaga, R. David Napier its head to deter flies, & Mohan Raj, V. 2005. Report of an injured Ceylon Bay Owl Phodilus The injured Oriental Bay Owl Phodilus badius. assimilis from Karnataka, India. Indian Birds 1 (5): 118–119.

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